A free public talk and discussion

7:00pm - 9:00pmThursday April 21 2016

Do you know where your clothes come from? Are you part of the fast fashion phenomenon? If you are interested in exploring sustainable fashion, then this talk is for you!

The Sustainability Office and the Faculty of Environment at Simon Fraser University invite you to a free presentation featuring Ingrid Uhrich, instructor, Fashion Design and Merchandising, Centre for Arts and Technology, Kelowna.

Can you tell the difference between polyester and cotton? What do you do when a piece of clothing falls apart?

These are the questions Ingrid Uhrich, a technical fashion designer, instructor and mother of three, kept asking herself and others before embarking on a journey to find out some answers.

Ingrid Uhrich has made it her personal challenge to learn more about the counter movement in the fashion industry’s status quo: Sustainable Fashion. By wearing the same little black dress for 180 days in a row, Ingrid hopes to inspire and educate others about a different way of approaching fashion. During this experiment, Ingrid has kept a blog where she discusses several of the aspects that affect sustainable fashion, including the phenomenon of fast fashion, which has infiltrated our culture so quickly. She talks about the social, environmental and economic impact of this process, both globally and locally (http://www.180stylechallenge.com/).

The purpose of the project is to raise awareness about the difficulties in trying to keep a sustainable lifestyle while buying clothing and the options to those who would like to try. During this lecture through slides and personal stories, we will explore the ups and downs of the challenge and investigate some of the possibilities enfolding some of the answers being discovered.